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Unintentional Injury

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Handbook of Adolescent Health Risk Behavior

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

Viewing adolescent behavior as reckless, in need of restraint and modification, is not new. Whereas earlier generations of thinkers and educators were concerned with building character, a growing segment of their counterparts today are couching the discussion in terms of health. Expressions such as youthful recklessness, problem behaviors, excessive or deviant risk-taking, health-compromising behaviors, and behavioral misadventures are being used not only to describe adolescent behavior, but also to explain adverse health outcomes in this population. A review of the current literature on adolescent behavior and health reveals a repeated theme of attributing ill health in this age group primarily to risk-taking behavior. Injuries, as the major contributor to adolescent death and disability, are being used as a principal example of such a link.

Young people are thoughtless as a rule.

—Homer

Youth is perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind.

—La Rochefoucauld

The ripeness of adolescence is prodigal in pleasures, skittish, and in need of a bridle.

—Plutarch

The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.

—Socrates

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Injury Control Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Ilana Lescohier

  2. Children’s Safety Network, Education Development Center, Inc., Newton, Massachusetts, 02158-1060, USA

    Susan Scavo Gallagher

Authors
  1. Ilana Lescohier
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  2. Susan Scavo Gallagher
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Health Behavior and Pediatrics, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

    Ralph J. DiClemente Ph.D.

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

    William B. Hansen Ph.D.

  3. Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Lynn E. Ponton Ph.D.

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Lescohier, I., Gallagher, S.S. (1996). Unintentional Injury. In: DiClemente, R.J., Hansen, W.B., Ponton, L.E. (eds) Handbook of Adolescent Health Risk Behavior. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0203-0_9

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